‘Worse than we thought’: Postecoglou says injured Maddison out till January
James Maddison’s ankle injury “is a lot worse than we thought”, according to Ange Postecoglou, with the Tottenham manager confirming that the in-form playmaker will be unavailable for club and country until January.
Postecoglou revealed that Micky van de Ven will also be absent until the new year after the defender injured a hamstring in the 4-1 Premier League defeat by Chelsea.
Maddison was taken off during the first half of the game on Monday and his club confirmed he is unavailable for England’s Euro 2024 qualifiers at home to Malta next Friday and away to North Macedonia.
“It’s fair to say a fair bit happened after Monday,” Postecoglou said. “Micky obviously with that hamstring injury, we knew it was fairly significant, probably a couple of months for him looking into the new year.
“[Maddison] is a lot worse than we thought. He came off with an ankle injury and the next day wasn’t great, so * we sent him for a scan. Again probably into the new year for him. [Richarlison] should only be a month so not too long after international break, so they are the main ones, but we’ve got a couple of suspensions as well. Ben Davies is back and available. [Pedro] Porro is fine, he trained no problem.”
Spurs also had Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie sent off during their first defeat of the season, which means Postecoglou will be without several key players for Saturday’s trip to Wolves.
Spurs said Maddison would continue his rehabilitation at their training centre under the supervision of club medical staff. Maddison had been included on Thursday in the initial 25-man England squad named by Gareth Southgate, who had said he was “pretty confident” that the Spurs player, along with Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham, would be available. England sealed qualification for next summer’s Euros in Germany in their last qualifier, a 3-1 win over Italy at Wembley last month, but are not yet guaranteed a place in the top six seeds. Tottenham play at Wolves in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off.